SFCC Foundation - Board of Directors

The Santa Fe Community College Foundation Board elected new officers and welcomed new members at its meeting in October, 2014. The Board officers, selected by members, will serve two-year terms. Rick Abeles J.D. will serve as President; Rachel Belash as Vice President and Chair, Philanthropy Committee; Rosemary Mulcahy as Treasurer and Chair, Finance Committee, and Carmen Gonzales, Ph.D. will serve as Secretary. The Foundation Board members are local residents dedicated to advancing the interests of students at Santa Fe Community College through scholarships, assistance in purchasing textbooks, matching grants and special programs administered through the SFCC Foundation.

Mr.
Richard A (Rick) Abeles, President, serves on the Finance
Committee, Philanthropy Committee & Leadership and Board Development
Committee. Founded Santa Fe Children's Museum & has served on many local
boards, including election to the Metropolitan Water Board. Abeles holds a BA
in physics from Amherst College and a Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School.

Dr.
Rachel Belash, Vice President and Chair, Philanthropy Committee, serves
on the Finance Committee & Leadership and Board Development Committee. Also
Serves on the Board of United World College USA and is a volunteer tutor for
literacy and ESL training, SFCC ABE Program. Belash is tenured at Vassar
College, then became head of independent girls' schools in Connecticut and
Toronto. She is Manager, Search Group & VP, Trust Division, Bank of Boston.
Belash did Undergraduate work at Oxford
University and holds a Ph.D. in Latin American Studies from the University of
Kentucky.

Ms. Rosemary
Palazzi Mulcahy, Treasurer and Chair, Finance Committee, serves
on the Leadership & Board Development Committee. Mulcahy is a CPA for small
business, tax and estate planning and holds a BA in International Affairs from
University of Colorado.

Dr.
Carmen Gonzales, Secretary of the Board,is also the Vice
President for Student Success at the Santa Fe Community College. Gonzales
is a Native Santa Fean, retired, VP of Student Success & Dean, College of
Extended Learning and faculty in the College of Education, NMSU. She serves on
the McCarthey Dressman Education Foundation, which gives grants and
scholarships to teachers and student teachers.

Mr. Randy
Grissom, Ex Officio, President, Santa
Fe Community College, formerly SFCC's Vice President for Academic
Affairs. Grissom joined SFCC as faculty
when college was founded in 1983. He established
the NM Small Business Development Center, worked for other colleges and in
private industry before returning to SFCC to establish the college’s biofuels
program, solar technology curriculum, green building, and algae production
courses. Grissom holds a BA and MA in Business from Texas Christian University
in Fort Worth, Texas.

Ms. Carole
Brito, Chair, Leadership and Board Development, serves
on the Philanthropy Committee. She is
President and Founder of LEAD (Leadership, Education, Assessment and
Development) for Excellence. Brito has 30 years as a K-Graduate level educator,
retired from Highlands University and holds a BS, from University of New Mexico
and MA, Educational Administration New
Mexico Highlands University.

The newest members of the SFCC Board are listed below:

Bonifacio (Boni) Armijo is a Native Santa Fean and as owner of Building Adventures Unlimited, is passionate about architecture and historical preservation. Boni has served on boards and committees including Cornerstones Community Partnership, the City of Santa Fe's Historical Review Board, the City Planning Commission and the Downtown Steering Committee, and has sponsored the Colcha award for 15 years for the Spanish Colonial Museum Board,. His concern for Santa Fe's young people has led him to serve on various boards for youth, including Warehouse 21 and the Santa Fe Regional Juvenile Justice Program.

Kenneth Dettelbach, J.D. is the co-owner of Gateway Marketing, LLC. He earned his Juris Doctorate at Western Reserve Law School, in Cleveland, Ohio and was a Captain in the United States Army. Kenneth is an active member of the Santa Fe Area Home Builder's Association, the Santa Fe Rotary Club, Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce and Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the American Legion and Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 996.

Frederick Nugent, J.D., Member, earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Notre Dame, and received his Juris Doctorate from Seton Hall University in 1971. Fred has comprehensive domestic and international legal and business experience. His financial expertise includes managing a departmental budget in excess of $26 million.

Martha G. Romero, Ph.D., is a recently elected member of the SFCC
Board. Prior to this she was President of a community college in
California; she established several leadership development institutes in
Ca., one a community leadership program similar to Leadership Santa Fe
and another to train community college leaders through Claremont
Graduate University.

Dr. Romero teaches online occasionally and continues to work with
community colleges as a leadership coach. She has been a board trainer
through the University of Texas at Austin, CLaremont Graduate University
and the Association of Governing Boards. She serves on the Board of
Everest College Phoenix, a private for profit college, and has served on
the SIAS University Foundation Board. SIAS is an American University
in rural China.

Pablo Sedillo was appointed to SFCC Governing Board and is the SFCC Governing Board Representative to the Foundation. He is a member of the SFCC Leadership and Board Development Committee. Pablo serves as Government Relations Liaison for Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center. He is a former field representative for U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman. He earned his bachelor's degree at New Mexico Highlands University and serves on the NMHU Foundation Board of Directors.

Linda Vega is a University of Texas at El Paso graduate. She earned an advanced certificate from the American Institute of Banking and graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, School of Banking. Linda has 40 years of banking experience, starting her career in 1974 in El Paso, Texas, and transferring to Albuquerque in 1999. She is the District Manager for Wells Fargo Bank's Santa Fe locations and surrounding areas including Los Alamos, Espanola and Pojoaque. She serves as Board of Directors Chairperson for Junior Achievement New Mexico and is dedicated to financial literacy, entrepreneurship and workforce readiness in our youth.

Sharon Woods Is the CEO of Woods Design Builders, Inc. started in 1977. In the past thirty years she has built and remodeled many Santa Fe homes and businesses, co-authored the books Santa Fe Style and Santa Fe Homes, and produced a Santa Fe style wallpaper and fabric collection. She has lived in Santa Fe for forty years and has received dozens of awards for home-building and design. Ms. Woods was Chair of the Santa Fe County Development Review Committee and served many years on the board of Esperanza as well as Saint Vincent Hospital.

The SFCC Foundation Board is the governing body responsible for overseeing development and fund management. The Board meets bi-monthly on the third Wednesday.

STAFF

Deborah Boldt serves as the Executive Director of the SFCC
Foundation and as SFCC's Director of Development. As an experienced
development professional, Ms. Boldt has worked in both grant seeking and
grant making for more than 20 years, seven of those in New Mexico. She
served as a program officer for the Con Alma Health Foundation where she
managed a $1.5 million portfolio and for the Los Alamos National
Laboratory Foundation where she was responsible for raising over $3
million across all sectors: corporations, foundations, government and
individuals. She has also worked in international development in Brazil,
Argentina and India. Ms. Boldt holds a Master of Planning and
Administration degree from Antioch University and has several research
and policy publications to her credit, including a report published by
the Con Alma Health Foundation in 2006: Closing the Health Disparity Gap in New Mexico: A Roadmap for Grantmaking.